Kelly: Missing the moment at 9/11 ceremony

President Barack Obama speaks at the dedication ceremony for the National September 11 Memorial Museum on Thursday, May 15, 2014 in New York.

Mike Kelly is a Record columnist. Contact him at kellym@northjersey.com.

THE DEDICATION ceremonies at the new 9/11 Museum in lower Manhattan were over and the president decided to hang around and mix with the crowd.

Relatives and friends of 9/11 victims pressed forward. So did cops and firefighters, many of whom ran into the twin towers on that September morning almost 13 years ago to help rescue thousands of office workers. The president smiled. He shook hands and even hugged a few people and posed for photos. He seemed in no hurry to leave.

For Bill Clinton, it seemed like business as usual.

And President Obama? He also came to the ceremonies last Thursday and delivered a speech. But he quietly slipped out before they ended.

The White House claimed later that Obama had not been summoned to an emergency meeting. There was no crisis to deal with.

Obama left because he was concerned that his large Secret Service security detail – the “footprint,” as the White House described it — would prevent victims’ relatives and others from leaving the ceremony quickly and viewing the museum’s exhibits. As a matter of courtesy the president left early. Really?

Maybe that excuse works for a campaign stop at a school board meeting in Iowa during primary season. But the dedication of the 9/11 Museum – a place that also holds the remains of unidentified victims — strikes me as one of those command performances where the president should stay to the end and perhaps shake a few hands.

Ceremonies like the one last Thursday at the new 9/11 Museum bring together all sorts of agendas and emotions. Amid so many
whirling sentiments, Obama’s departure was almost unnoticed. One minute he was sitting in the front row with Governor Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and across the aisle from Bill and Hillary Clinton. The next, he was gone.

Only minutes before, Obama walked to a podium. And, here, the impact of his early exit seemed most profound. At the podium, Obama was at his best, finding just the right words and tone to frame the meaning of this important dedication at such an important spot in American history. Was this Obama’s equivalent of a Gettysburg Address? Maybe.

But contrast that with him leaving early. It made no sense.
Obama began with a story of Welles Crowther, a 24-year-old securities trader who worked in the upper floors of the South Tower who guided numerous people to safety but never saved himself.

It was a poignant moment – the president of the most powerful nation in the world paying tribute to one man whose death – and sacrifice — symbolized so much about the 9/11 attacks and how ordinary Americans managed to do extraordinary things.

As if that wasn’t enough, however, Obama switched gears and spoke of the larger context of the 9/11 tragedy.

“Here, at this memorial, this museum, we come together,” Obama said. “We stand in the footprints of two mighty towers, graced by the rush of eternal waters. We look into the faces of nearly 3,000 innocent souls — men and women and children of every race, every creed, and every corner of the world. We can touch their names and hear their voices and glimpse the small items that speak to the beauty of their lives. A wedding ring. A dusty helmet. A shining badge.

He continued: “Here we tell their story, so that generations yet unborn will never forget. Of coworkers who led others to safety. Passengers who stormed a cockpit. Our men and women in uniform who rushed into an inferno. Our first responders who charged up those stairs. A generation of service members — our 9/11 Generation — who have served with honor in more than a decade of war. A nation that stands tall and united and unafraid — because no act of terror can match the strength or the character of our country. Like the great wall and bedrock that embrace us today, nothing can ever break us; nothing can change who we are as Americans.”

Pay attention to those words. These are long segments from Obama’s speech and usually the news media does not offer such lengthy quotations. But I include them here to show the real craftsmanship at work. Of course, Obama has terrific speechwriters. But it takes talent to deliver those words effectively as Obama did.

Then he left, however. And then the White House offered an explanation about the hassles of his security “footprint.” Craftsmanship suddenly became cluelessness.

Obama is a complex man, capable of soaring rhetoric but also uncomfortable rubbing shoulders with even some of his most loyal campaign fund donors. He does not seem to understand the simple give and take of politics in a way that Bill Clinton does and even Chris Christie – indeed, that people expect their leaders to enjoy meeting people.

This means hanging around when you attend a dedication of a nationally significant museum that is also a graveyard holding more than 7,000 pieces of unidentified remains of victims in a special repository. And, yes, it also means saying hello and shaking hands.

After he left, I thought of how Obama had missed his chance for a presidential moment. But then, it wasn’t the first time. It probably won’t be the last. He can speak like a president. Sometimes he doesn’t act that way.